Choosing a Bonsai Style
Bonsai can bring much delight to viewers and growers alike. While many see it as a form of décor that adds an appealing touch to the home, many growers liken caring for a bonsai to caring for a pet or a child. They know that bonsai need a lot of care, attention and nutrition. They also liken it to an art, as a grower can prune the plant to determine its aesthetic outcome.
If you want to buy a bonsai instead of planting and growing it yourself, your most basic decision would be to choose between indoor and outdoor bonsai plants. Mediterranean and tropical species can usually thrive indoors. However, bonsai artists are quick to emphasise that no type of bonsai is truly meant for growing indoors. As trees and shrubs naturally flourish under the sun, bonsai plants are at home in the natural outdoors.
Visual impact is one of the features that makes bonsai so appealing. For prospective owners, here are some common styles to choose from.
1.Formal upright (“chokkan” in Japanese) - its trunk stands straight and points upward, becoming narrower at the top. Its branches also thin out and shorten as they reach the top.
2.Informal upright (moyogi) - several curves or uneven branches make this style look more free-flowing. However, like the chokkan, its finest and shortest branches are at the top. The plant's apex rests directly above the point where the trunk juts out from the soil.
3.Slant-style (shakan) - it has a straight trunk that slants either towards the left or towards the right from the root base.
4.Cascade-style (kengai) - this type of bonsai looks like a plant that grows on the side of a mountain or over a body of water. Its apex extends down beneath the base of its pot at one side.
5.Semi-cascade-style (han kengai) - it is like the kengai; however, its apex only falls at or below the lip of its pot.
7.Raft-style (netsuranari) - it is patterned after the branches that continue to grow on one side of a fallen tree.
8.Literati style (bunjin-gi) - it follows no pattern and may appear disfigured. It has a bare, contorting, curved trunk, with leaves growing only at the top. It is commonly described as having “refined elegance.”
